A movie might change your life overnight, leave you pondering for weeks until you completely figure it out, and do your best to move on from its haze. It’ll undoubtedly stick with you for the rest of your life, and whenever someone asks, ‘What’s a game-changing film for you?’ you’ll probably have your answer ready.
Movies of these types often feel like a gateway to escape from reality, and if one finds ‘the one’ at a relatively young age, it might be an awakening point for them. A good film tends to do that to people, and a side effect of this reality switch for a younger mind will be to see how complicated things in life might get.
We don’t know if these descriptions sound familiar to you since maybe you have yet to see your ‘game changer’ movie, but Maynard James Keenan had a quick answer to give when he was asked which films he would name among his favorites while chatting with AV Club in 2014. The singer readily had a few iconic pieces in mind while making his list, but when discussing one particular movie, he decided to dive deep.
As Maynard started disclosing how ‘Blue Velvet’ had been a ‘game changer’ in his life, he also remarked that it was like a gateway drug for him and his friends who, till then, watched simpler movies. The film became an awakening point for the young Keenan and his buddies as they tried figuring out the complex structure of the 1986 piece and saw how entertaining it was to be both scared and have fun.
Maynard’s remarks on how ‘Blue Velvet’ changed his life and became a gateway from a simple reality:
“‘Blue Velvet’ was a game changer for me. It brought out some of the darker sides of my friends. They were more into ‘Porky’s’ and ‘Fast Times At Ridgemont High,’ and then, all of a sudden, they discovered ‘Blue Velvet,’ and it really flipped a switch. They started to really get into film in a way that opened the door for them.
It was like a gateway drug for film. They started to understand a more complex dynamic in film and how you could actually embrace a dark story and laugh at it and be kind of scared by it.”
Keenan on why that particular movie hit him in a different way from the rest:
“There were probably movies around that time that we just hadn’t been exposed to, but ‘Blue Velvet’ was the film that really hit us. I graduated in 1982. I’d seen crazy films at that point, so I was already beyond saving in terms of my community’s perception of my path.
I wasn’t going to be the high school guidance counselor; I was off on some other tangent. But ‘Blue Velvet’ is when I witnessed a change in my friends from my generation, a change in their perception of art or entertainment or poetry or whatever you want to call it. That was an awakening point.”
The singer pointed out how ‘Blue Velvet’ was the switch that changed his perception of life and art altogether. It had left him pondering for a while, and his friends’ lives were changed after seeing the movie. So, Maynard felt his understanding of reality switch at a younger age, when he was a teenager, and maybe, the film influenced his artistic life later on.
